Marine Corps marks its 251st birthday on Nov. 10. Birthday Balls Have Already Begun

The Marine Corps turns 251 on Nov. 10, 2026. The date traces to a single Continental Congress resolution passed in Philadelphia in 1775. The Birthday Ball and the cake ceremony that many Marines know well came much later, and some of their details are still undocumented.

The 1775 Resolution

On Nov. 10, 1775, the Continental Congress resolved to raise two battalions of Marines. The resolution, preserved in the Journal of the Continental Congress and posted by the Marine Corps University, said that “no persons be appointxed to office, or enlisted into said Battalions, but such as are good seamen,” or otherwise familiar with maritime affairs. Members would serve for the duration of the war with Great Britain unless Congress dismissed them, and the units were to be called the first and second battalions of American Marines.

The resolution does not mention Tun Tavern. The Marine Corps’ public website describes the Philadelphia tavern as the Corps’ birthplace, and it became central to later birthday traditions.

The Corps did not last uninterrupted. It disbanded after the 1783 Treaty of Paris, and Congress re-created it on July 11, 1798, under the Secretary of the Navy.

How Nov. 10 Became the Birthday

From 1799 until 1921, the Corps’ birthday was considered to be July 11, according to Marines.mil. A Marine Corps history article from Headquarters Marine Corps says there is no evidence of real ceremonies taking place on that date.

That changed in 1921. Per the same history, Maj. McClellan suggested that the 1775 date be observed as a holiday, and on Nov. 1, 1921, Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune, the commandant, issued Marine Corps Order No. 47. It directed that his message be read to every command on Nov. 10 each year. The message begins: “On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines was created by a resolution of Continental Congress.” The reading is still part of the ceremony.

The Birthday Ball

The first event called a Birthday Ball was probably held in 1925 in Philadelphia, according to the Marine Corps. Its main event was the unveiling of a tablet at the site of Tun Tavern, a gift from the Thomas Roberts Reath Post of the American Legion.

The Cake Ceremony

The date of the first cake ceremony is not known. The earliest instance noted by Headquarters Marine Corps is at Quantico, Virginia, in 1935. A 1937 ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington is better documented. Marines.mil says Maj. Gen. Thomas Holcomb cut a large cake shaped like Tun Tavern.

In 1952, Commandant Gen. Lemuel Shepherd directed that the birthday observance be formalized, and an outline of the cake ceremony was included in the Drill Manual approved in 1956, according to the Headquarters history.

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